Q&A
Objective criteria and application of equity principles in agency work
0:45:15
·
3 min
Council Member Williams seeks clarification on the objective criteria used to assess budget equity and how equity principles are applied to agency work. Commissioner Sherman elaborates on MOERJ's approach to defining equity and guiding agencies in their planning process.
- MOERJ focuses on core levers of government such as resource allocation, addressing past harms, and anti-marginalization efforts
- Agencies are provided with clear definitions of equity, structural racism, and marginalization
- The planning process involves setting short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals for agencies to address disparities and transform their practices
Nantasha M. Williams
0:45:15
You mentioned objective criteria.
0:45:17
Can you share if at all, like, objective criteria that has been discussed or decided upon in terms of, like, how to assess the budget for equity?
Sideya Sherman
0:45:29
Sure.
0:45:29
So we are as we go through the ratio actually playing processes this year, we're folk we've asked agency to really focus on the core levers of government.
0:45:37
Right?
0:45:37
And so, you know, we've spent time looking at plans from other cities.
0:45:41
We again spent lots of time in conversation with our advisory board.
0:45:44
While we anticipate certainly having a plan that has a number of programs and initiatives and policies, what we're really looking for is a plan that has a number of long term goals tied to how and where we allocate our resources, how we're addressing past harms, for instance, as well as how advancing efforts that are considered to be anti marginalizing.
0:46:05
And so we've worked with agencies to share clear definitions of equity, clear definitions structural racism, of marginalization, right, to create tools that agencies can use to sort of cross check the way in which they design programs and policies.
0:46:20
These are not designed to be rigid, right, into to to lock agencies into any particular way of doing work, but to create some uniform understanding so that when we're using the word equity, we're all operating with the same definition.
Nantasha M. Williams
0:46:32
Yeah.
0:46:33
I think from like a philosophical lens, that sounds amazing.
0:46:37
Are you able to provide, like, an example of, you know, something or, like, a particular item or use the agency as an example to like, help me understand how this, like, the theories of what you're doing and the definition then actually get applied.
0:46:55
To, like, the tangible work of a particular agency and maybe some work they need to do to be a little bit more equitable or you know, fix their budgets to make sure that it reflects the necessary investment in communities that have been historically marginalized as like a particular criteria that she mentioned.
Sideya Sherman
0:47:16
Sure.
0:47:17
Everything you shared is exactly the way in which we're we're focusing the plants.
Nantasha M. Williams
0:47:20
Absolutely.
0:47:21
Yes.
0:47:21
I No.
Sideya Sherman
0:47:21
So we so I don't wanna I don't wanna get ahead of we're still working with agencies to finalize plans.
0:47:26
I certainly don't wanna get ahead of that.
0:47:28
In this planning process, we certainly have used hypothetical fake agencies to help agencies think through their planning process.
0:47:35
But I think big picture, you know, what we've designed as a process where agencies are 1st and foremost reexamining their missions relative to these foundational values.
0:47:44
There you are then stuck in on a they they are next setting short term goals that are really tied to the disparities that they see in the data.
0:47:52
So for instance, this, if I am an agency focused on employment, and I'm seeing disparities within certain populations.
0:47:59
Right?
0:47:59
I'm sending short term goal to start to close those disparities, but the goals are very specific.
0:48:04
Right?
0:48:04
The goals may be more than connecting someone to a job, but connecting someone to a job that has a living age, for instance.
0:48:10
I'm then moving towards midterm goals that are a little bit more transformative for my agency.
0:48:15
So for instance, thinking through strategies to update my RFPs, for instance, to include some of the the values and principles that combat marginalization.
0:48:27
Right?
0:48:27
And then I'm looking towards long term goals that are potentially 10 years, right, where I'm potentially shifting my resources to specific neighborhoods or specific districts where we're seeing at the that's deeper than the rest of the city.
0:48:42
And so that's the kind of exercise that agencies are going through.
0:48:46
You know, the charter calls on agencies to certainly have goals that can be accomplished in 2 fiscal years.
0:48:52
So you will see a number of short term goals.
0:48:54
Agencies also certainly are lifting up.
0:48:56
Work that's happening across this administration and that's aligned, but they also are taking this deeper look at their work, their processes, and we'll be sharing that in the plan.